The steady increase in use of prescription opioids in the United States over the past decade has been a key contributor to the sky-rocketing incidence of abuse of these medications. The number of opioid prescriptions written for pain has risen from about 76 million in 1991 to approximately 219 million in 2011. In conjunction with this rising prescription rate has been an increase in opioid-related overdoses and hospitalizations. “With their increasing availability, prescription opioids have become the most abused class of drug in the U.S.,” says Robert N. Jamison, PhD. Research shows that more deaths are related to opioid abuse than cocaine and heroin combined. The OCC Studies indicate that most clinicians are not adequately prepared to properly diagnose, treat, and monitor patients with chronic pain who are prescribed opioids. To address this issue, researchers have developed the Opioid Compliance Checklist (OCC), a brief, self-report measure to help document opioid compliance for use by prescribing practitioners. “It was designed to reflect components of an opioid therapy agreement that would outline patients’ responsibilities and clinic policies in prescribing opioids for chronic pain,” adds Dr. Jamison. In a previous study, the original items of the OCC were administered to 157 chronic non-cancer pain patients who were taking long-term opioids and being cared for at pain specialty centers. Participants were followed for 1 year to evaluate evidence of non-compliance and aberrant medication-related behavior. Nearly 45% of patients had a positive Drug Misuse Index score based on either positive urine toxicology results, self-report measures, and/or physician-rated aberrant drug-related behavior. However, the study concluded that there was a need to validate the OCC...